What has the immune system ever done for me?

Members of the public are invited to attend a free lecture exploring how the human immune system defends the body – and how scientists can use immunity to fight deadly diseases.

Stephen Todryk, Professor of Immunology and Head of the Mammalian Cell Biology & Immunology Group at Northumbria University, will discuss the complexities of the human immune system and look at how the human body deals with cancer and other infectious diseases. Drawing on 20 years’ experience, he hopes to demonstrate just how impressive and important the human immune system really is.

Professor Todryk explained: “Over the past twenty years, we’ve seen some major developments in immunology – we now have antibody-based immunotherapies to treat several diseases including cancer and are getting closer to a licensed vaccine for malaria. With Ebola now dominating news headlines, research in this area is more relevant than ever.

I hope the audience will go away with a better understanding of the immune system, how immunity defends us and how it can be used to our advantage by scientists to fight these diseases.”

After receiving his PhD in bacterial vaccine studies at Guy’s Hospital, London, Professor Todryk carried out vital research on cancer immunotherapy at the Cancer Research UK Lab at the Hammersmith Hospital and at St George’s in London. He was Principal Investigator of a research group on this subject at the University of Maynooth and Trinity College Dublin. Returning to the UK in 2004, Stephen worked at Oxford University on the development of a potential malaria vaccine, in collaboration with Adrian Hill.

At Northumbria, Stephen continues to apply his immunological expertise to diseases of the heart and lung, and to chronic fatigue syndrome.

He is on the editorial boards for several international journals on immunology, and has served on the British Society of Immunology Council.

The lecture will take place at 6.30pm on Wednesday 25 March in Lecture Theatre 002 of the Business & Law Building at City Campus East, Northumbria University. Refreshments will be available from 6pm.

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